MD/PhD Essays - Redundant?

[Soulstice]

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For the two AMCAS MD/PhD essays, I feel hard-pressed to write two essays that aren't redundant or repetitive. Prompts here:

M.D.-Ph.D. Essay
If you are applying to an M.D.-Ph.D. program(s), you are required to provide two (2)
additional essays. Use the M.D.-Ph.D. essay to state your reasons for pursuing the
combined M.D.-Ph.D. degree. Your responses will only be forwarded to your designated
M.D.-Ph.D. program(s). This essay is limited to 3000 characters.

Significant Research Experience Essay
In addition to the M.D.-Ph.D. essay, you are also required to provide an essay that
describes your significant research experiences. In your essay statement, please specify
your research supervisor's name and affiliation, the duration ofthe experience, the nature
of the problem studied, and your contributions to the project. This essay is limited to
10,000 characters

I feel like I'm describing my research passions in both of them; if you read one, the other is basically a more technical explanation of the same work. How did you reconcile these two and make them constructive without being redundant?

 

[red doctober]

For the first essay, I talked more about my evolution from wanting to do medicine to then deciding that I wanted to go down the MD/PhD route and how my research experiences strongly influenced that decision. I didn't really talk at all what I was doing specifically in the lab, just how it affected me. I think you should also demonstrate in the first essay why it's both for you (why not just MD or just PhD.) For me it really was a specific experience from working with a physician scientist and seeing how her work in the clinic and in the lab complemented each other.

In the second essay it was more technical to show my knowledge of the research I was doing and report what my responsibilities were. The approach I took was sort of a less formal manuscript or thesis. You can talk a little more about yourself and how these experiences shaped you, but it's largely just talking about the research. Don't feel obligated to fill up all of the space here.

There will be some redundancies like, "In June 2010, I joined Dr. Snape's lab in the Department of Potions at Hogwarts studying the long-term effects of veritaserum use on brain function." Aside from introductions like these, you shouldn't be saying a whole lot of the same things in both essays.